Every time Google quietly adds a new invasive feature to their existing product line, privacy advocates line up around the block to voice their disapproval and decry the death of privacy in the modern age. I’m here to tell you that privacy has been a thing of the past for many years gone by, my friend. Fifty years ago, satellite photo intelligence was accurate enough to tell whether someone was hiding behind or even inside an outhouse. By rudimentary application of Moore’s Law, one could wager that they should now be capable of training their low earth orbit cameras on the outhouse on my acerage, analyzing my gastric contents from the trace amounts of residue on my hands after wiping, reading this message over my shoulder (tell me you’ve never typed from the water closet before), filtering for keywords, alerting homeland security of any breaches in netiquette, not only spell and grammar checking my porn spam but immediately placing penis extension and cialis orders for top brass, and occasionally sending me fake IM alerts from Oedipa Maas just to mess with me for sharing this information with you. Just by reading this blog you are dabbling in things that sleeping man was not meant to know. “The twenty-first century is when it all changes. And you’ve gotta be ready.” – Captain Jack Harkness.

Sure, Google is denying it now. But there’s no doubt for the careful eye: the lost continent of Atlantis has been discovered via Google Maps.

You know that Atlantis isn’t just a cheesy hotel-casino in Reno, don’t you? Plato — we’re talking the Greek philosopher who lived circa 400 B.C.E. — reported on a continent with an advanced civilization that vanished by way of a major catastophe.

And now you can see it for yourself. Ain’t the interwebs great?

While we’re all waiting to see whether George will actually stage his coup of the US government this month, I’d like to pause and point out that we have a sister site you may not have seen at www.area51.org. It’s a news aggregator for some of the best supernatural, paranormal, and weird news sites we’ve found on these here interwebs — sort of like a paranormal daily newspaper, except that it’s not paper and it’s updated every 10 minutes. Check it out!

A “Plutoid” (or dwarf planet, after the demoted Pluto) discovered in 2005 has been renamed from “Easterbunny” to “Makemake“, the chief god, creator of humanity and god of fertility in the mythology of the inhabitants of Easter Island (Rapa Nui).

The red methane-covered orb is only slightly smaller and dimmer than Pluto. Discovery of this and other trans-Neptunian objects led the International Astronomical Union to reclassify Pluto.

Save yourself some time and trouble by reading this post before you download the 77-page MUFON report about the January 8, 2008 incident occurring between 6:30 and 9 p.m. in the Dublin-Stephenville area of north Texas. Witnesses claimed to have seen an absolutely silent, extraordinarily large craft (perhaps up to 1000 feet in size) moving at incredible speeds (estimated 2000 mph — yes, that’s two THOUSAND). MUFON investigators Glen Schulze and Robert Powell reviewed radar reports from five sites and compared them to eyewitness testimony. MUFON submitted ten separate FOIA requests to gather the data, and obtained “precise information on the location of all military and commercial aircraft in the airspace of interest at all times during 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.” They sifted through the radar data (2.8 million radar returns from the FAA alone) and reviewed testimony from seventeen eyewitnesses (a very large number given the narrow window of observation). Witnesses included a constable, chief of police, private pilot, and a former air traffic controller.

The huge, bright object displayed behavior typical of many sightings: unbelievably rapid acceleration and deceleration, hovering and sudden trajectory changes. Interestingly, the object traveled on a direct course towards Crawford and the “western White House” Bush ranch, approaching within 10 miles of the ranch at its closest — all without a required transponder. Right, wrong or indifferent, it’s not exactly comforting to know that a radar-confirmed object without a transponder was on its way to a sensitive target without any military response despite the fact that military aircraft where flying maneuvers in the immediate vicinity. (NOTE: the president was not at the ranch on this date).

Even less reassuring is the conclusion by MUFON that military activity in the area was unusually heavy that evening. At one point, F-16s flew within a mile of the object. No voice recordings from the jets were available via FOIA requests, but the F-16s did not appear to respond to the object in any way despite the fact that the object was clearly visible on radar. Tellingly, military aircraft twice veered out of Military Training Routes and into civilian airspace over Stephenville during the sighting interval. No explanation has yet to be provided by Carswell AFB.

More questions than answers? The missing puzzle pieces might have been found in the remaining reports requested by MUFON’s unanswered FOIA requests. It seems that obfuscation continues to be the norm with the US government.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6o9_DHz9Mk